Rockwell Bistro & Wine Bar — Restaurant in London

Rockwell is located in St James Trafalgar, inside the hotel that overlooks the square. The restaurant sits on the ground floor with a pleasant bistro-style interior, decorative columns, trees toward the back, and an adjacent bar. The concept leans toward sharing plates, and we were advised to order three dishes per person since we were heading to a show afterward.

Unfortunately, the wait for food was far longer than expected. Even the sourdough—something that could easily have been served quickly—took a surprisingly long time to arrive.

Food:

The sour dough but slices of toasted sourdough but more on the white bread with olive oil. It was not a great dish! It could also have arrived earlier but came out with the first dish!

• Seabass à la plancha was the best dish of the night. The portion was small (around 100g) but nicely cooked, served with a red salsa and a simple salad. Overall, above average. • Fried cod cheeks were mediocre. The batter was too thick, and the accompanying sauce was unpleasant—an odd cheesy curry flavour that didn’t suit the fish at all. Below average. • Rockwell’s Schnitzel (chicken) was the worst dish. Instead of being pounded thin as a schnitzel should be, it was just a thick chicken breast coated and fried. The chicken was dry, the texture was wrong, and the dish completely missed the mark. Truly poor. • Ham croquetas were actually good—crispy, flavourful, and above average. We had ordered mushroom croquetas, but the ham version arrived instead, so it seems the order was misheard.

The Wagyu slider we ordered never arrived. With only 25 minutes left before our show, we asked for the bill. Only then did the slider turn up, which we had to send back. To their credit, they removed it from the bill, acknowledging that it arrived after we had already requested to settle up. Still, the slow pacing of the dishes made us worry we wouldn’t have enough time to finish our meal—which the late arrival confirmed.

Service: Service overall was below average. It was difficult to get attention, and even requests for tap water were met with reluctance—we were given only half-glasses at a time, and refills were slow.

Overall: Not a great experience. The food ranged from average to poor, service was slow and inattentive, and the overall value wasn’t there. We won’t...

I went here for my birthday and I honestly wish I hadn't. From walking in, no one gave us service to take us to our table : the doorman from outside came in to find us our table even though there were 2 women at the front looking after one man, clearly seeing we were standing there.

Our drinks came fine and the house white wine was actually really lovely. We ordered our food; my friend found hair in her chips and my other friend ordered a steak medium-well and it came back medium-rare, that is a huge difference. By this time our sides hadn't arrived either. They sent their meals back which meant we all ate at different times,

I am a type 1 diabetic and took my insulin accordingly to my meal, it arrived but because I was so fixated on ensuring my friends' meals were ok I didn't realise that my Chicken Milanese was so rock solid, I had to then ask for a steak knife. More commotion happened because we'd now finished our drinks and wanted something for our meals and so my friend went to the bar to ask for some service as there was no staff around. By this time, I was upset that I couldn't eat let alone drink and had taken my insulin.

We asked for the manager, who was so rude.He did not allow us to speak and kept getting defensive, to the point where my friends swore (in conversation, not at him) by which he took as we were swearing at him...he then said we were looking for a free meal. At which point I got really angry because I was not using my diabetes in vain to get a free meal - if I didn't eat in time I would need an ambulance. I took out my insulin pen to prove it which I didn't need to. We asked for the bill, we asked him to bring it which he didn't. His waiter who was so lovely and listened to us - brought us the bill with everything except my meal. We asked for it to be changed as we did not agree. They took my meal, wine and sides out. But we did not need this attitude or bad service. It was not even busy that night. Absolutely...

Went here for a 3 courses lunch deal on a Sunday. The place was an absolute joke, We turned up to an empty bar completely void of any kind of atmosphere (first Sunday in December). The bar area had not been cleaned after the hotel breakfast served here - the proof of this would be a) a slice of buttered toast under my friend's chair and b) the cleaner starting to vacuum the place in the middle of the lunch. As we were on a deal, we were restricted to the set three course menu but you would hope that participating restaurants would take the opportunity to use their deal to introduce new costumers to their establishment and showcase what they can do so we we're not too worried. However, the food that was served was tasteless and badly prepared at best and outright inedible in some cases. 'Grilled mackerel with watercress, cucumber at horseradish' turned out to be raw mackerel covered in Teryaki sauce - the fish had never been near a grill at all and was just a slimy piece of sweet, raw fish. We tried both of the remaining starters as well but left most of it on the plate as it was all pretty unappetising. The main course risotto was outright dangerous as it contained unidentified rock-hard black 1/2" pieces (of what might once been pieces of mushroom?) - luckily my friend spotted them and fished them out as they would without a doubt caused serious damage if bitten into. The bass was slightly underdone but freshly prepared as opposed to the lukewarm and dry Puy lentils on which it was served - but again no seasoning and pretty tasteless. All in all, it was a pretty dreadful dining experience. The waiting staff and manager did what they could and were polite and helpful (the star is for them) but I will...